How To Bend Sheet Metal Without A Brake

“Life is harder without your blood.” Actual facts, people. Actual facts.

As an experienced sheet metal fabricator, I can add some things: - Use a nylon hammer or at least hold a piece of wood between your hammer and the workpiece. - If you can grind a slight relief angle onto the inside tool, that will help form a 90° degree bend without it springing back. Steel almost works at exact 90°, but something like stainless steel or brass will need a few degrees overbending so it springs back to 90°. - Aluminium doesn't like tight bends because it's not very tough. If you need a tight bend, make sure the bend is perpendicular to the rolling direction. Be careful hammering it down with a steel hammer, because it's easy to squeeze and become too thin. Again, use a nylon hammer or piece of wood in between your hard hammer and workpiece.

Well done! My late father was a tool and die maker but never did his metal work at home, so I never picked up these tricks. He'd have appreciated your clear, methodical approach, as do I. I'm confident I'll be able to bend the 1" aluminum strip that I'm working on -- with practice, of course!

"Metal remembers all your mistakes" Very true.

Really nice to see a well-shot, clearly enunciated video, not done with a hand held phone camera! I expect you even had a script, unlike many others, so you knew what you were going to say. Excellent work!

I'm lucky to have a sheet metal brake in my engineering proto shop, but I LOVE videos that show how to get around the need for such tools. Well done sir.

Brilliant video, straight to the point, clear and focused. Thanks.

Excellent! Thanks for the various methods.

Thank you for the information!

Scoring before bending is a must! Instead of screwdriver you're better off using the circular pizza cutter. Works like a charm. Make sure to dull the blade down - there should be no sharp edge left. It should be smooth and rounded edge which is perfect for scoring metal. Otherwise it may cut through the sheet. Another trick - put rubber/EVA gym mat under the sheet while scoring.

Well done and thank you for this helpful tutorial!! ...clear demonstration of methods accompanied by good discussion of 'whys' as well as the 'how-tos'! I'd been keen to see a demonstration video on how to make metal saddles for attaching pipes to flat surfaces?

Exactly what I was looking for - Thank you....Very clearly explained.

Thank you so much! I was hoping to find an easy way to make a bracket for a piece of radio equipment. Now I can make it nicely.

Great video , thanks for taking the time to do this. Would I be able to use these methods for 3 or 4mm medium steel to make shelf brackets do you think ? Regards scott

i appreciate how clearly you communicated these instructions, thank you.

low-key GREAT video!...much thanks.

Excellent Video! Thanks!

Just used this technique and it worked perfectly, thanks! Only thing I would add is that a put small piece of timber against the aluminium and hit that with the hammer instead of the bare metal, this gave me a really nice even bend without any dents.

Great video, thank you for publishing this.

One of the best instructional videos I've ever seen. A+.